>> reporter: the president marked the occasion in a northern virginia neighborhood today. his goal: to sell the six-month- old law to voters, six weeks before the mid-term elections. >> and so what we realized was we had to take some steps to start dealing with these underlying, chronic problems that have confronted our economy for a very long time. and health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore. so it was bankrupting families, companies and our government. so we said we have to take this on. >> reporter: at the same time, mr. obama acknowledged many americans still don't like or don't understand the new law and he said he's partly to blame. >> sometimes i... i fault myself for not having been able to make the case more clearly to... to the country. we spend-- each of us who have health insurance spend about a thousand dollars of our premiums on somebody else's care. >> reporter: in fact, the latest round of polling underscored that health care reform has yet to win strong support. a new associated press survey found 40% disapproved, while 30% appro